Building Your First AI Agent with nexus

Embarking on crafting your first AI Agent is akin to venturing into app development, a journey that might seem daunting at first glance due to the new terminologies and concepts involved. However, nexus aims to simplify this process, making the creation of AI Agents accessible to everyone, irrespective of their coding skills.

What Does It Mean to Build an AI Agent?

If you're new to AI and chatbot development, you might wonder what exactly it entails to build an AI Agent. Traditionally, creating an intelligent system that can understand and respond to human language would require a deep understanding of machine learning, natural language processing, and software development. nexus transforms this narrative by providing a platform where you can build powerful AI Agents using simple, intuitive tools.

Building an AI Agent with nexus means giving life to a digital entity that can perform tasks, understand and generate language, and interact with users in a meaningful way. These agents can range from customer service bots to more complex assistants capable of making decisions and carrying out specific actions based on user commands.

Building your agent

nexus offers two primary pathways to create your AI Agent: starting from scratch or using the Agent Builder. The Agent Builder simplifies the process, guiding you through creating your agent via a chat interface. It asks for essential details like your agent's name, role, and the tasks it will perform. These tasks are essentially what your agent can do - from writing emails to answering questions or processing orders. Each task is defined by the expected input (the information your agent needs) and the expected output (what your agent will generate).

Core Components of an AI Agent

  • General Info: It is about how your agent appear to the world; like its picture, name, bio, etc.
  • Prompt: The core personality and behavior of your agent. It's the initial set of instructions that guides how your agent responds to inputs.
  • Skills : Specific actions your agent can perform. There are three types of skills:
    • Task: Specific writing actions of your agent, defined by expected inputs and outputs. Tasks are essentially prompted LLM that can write things based on specific inputs
    • Tools: External tools your agent can use to perform actions. This can be anything like fetching the latest news all the way to scrapping a website or making a phone call. These are essentially external APIs.
    • Knowledge: Internal information your agent can access on your behalf. These are sets of documents (PDF, DOCX, TXT, PPTX, etc.), websites, Notion, etc. that your agent can access to answer general or specific questions

Using the Agent Builder

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The Agent Builder is a user-friendly interface that steps you through the initial setup of your AI Agent. It's akin to having a conversation where you're asked about your agent's characteristics, such as its name, role, and the tasks it should handle. For example, if you're creating a sales agent, you might set up a task for writing cold emails, specifying the lead's name, company, and other relevant details as input, and expecting a well-crafted sales email as output.

It's crucial to note that an AI Agent can only work with the information provided in the prompt or input; it cannot "invent" details not given. Therefore, the quality and specificity of your inputs directly affect the agent's output quality.

Once you've defined your agent's tasks, the Agent Builder compiles this information, creating an initial version of your agent complete with a name, picture, bio, and tasks, each with its custom prompt. From there, you have the foundation of your first AI Agent, ready to be refined and expanded upon.

Glossary

  • Agent: A digital entity designed to perform tasks and interact with users based on predefined prompts and skills.
  • Prompt: A set of instructions or a scenario description that guides the agent's responses and actions.
  • Task: A specific function or activity that the agent is designed to perform, characterized by expected inputs and desired outputs.

Building your first AI Agent with nexus is just the beginning. As you familiarize yourself with the platform and its capabilities, you'll discover the potential to create sophisticated agents tailored to various needs and industries.